Project Ranger
by SPD Time Shadow
Summary: Pre-RPM, if the series was set in the same universe as the others. What if, before the RPM rangers, Dr K and the twins were part of another team? A group of past rangers set up to establish Corinth and co-ordinate Project Ranger? This is the story of K, Gem and Gemma before the events of the series, and reveals the truth behind K and the RPM powers. Rated T for later chapters, R
1. Chapter 1

_A/N So this is a new story, hopefully you'll enjoy it. I've purposefully left out the rangers identities til the thirs chapter, referring to them by colour only, so you can have a guess as to who is part of this ranger team. Please read, and review if you can; any feedback would be appreciated _

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Quick K! Run!' Gem shouted

The room they'd been stood in was engulfed in flame as the facility came under siege from the Venjix forces. K stared wide eyed at the burning wall, watching in a trance like state as the flames began to lick the walls either side of her and spread around the room; she had caused this destruction. She was responsible for letting everything fall apart, and the guilt that weighed heavy on her shoulders numbed her to the ever increasing temperature of the room that rose in accordance with the spread of the blaze. When she'd realised what she'd done she wanted the world to swallow her up...now it seemed she would get that wish. The roar and intensity of the flame started to burn in her ears as it got closer; she wondered how she'd ever managed to hear Gem's voice and feel his grip on her shoulders over the power of the flame

'Come on K, we have to go' his voice was subdued by the fire but K was aware he was probably yelling. She was frozen to the spot and part of her thought that, even if she had wanted to go with Gem, her body wouldn't let her. It was now K felt a second pair of hands, this time seizing the sides of her arms

'K don't do this to yourself, we can make this right' the voice was softer...female even...Gemma. Then it hit her; she wasn't alone, she had friends by her side who would never turn their back on her no matter what. Her legs turned to jelly and she felt like she would fall to her knees. Only two hands hooked under her arms stopped her from dropping to the ground; even though she didn't feel like she could carry herself out of the room, she was willing to let the twins guide her away

By the time they got her outside the roar of the fire was replaced by the chaos outside as soldiers were running, shouting loudly as they fled from the burning building. The trio opted to follow them, going in the same direction; it was a sensible thought that soldiers who were charged with guarding the facility would know the layout better than anyone else. Gem took the lead as he guided the two girls away from the blaze, every step taking them further and further away from danger. K composed herself a little and was able to at least keep up with Gem, albeit using his hand to guide and essentially carry her away, and sure enough the route they'd took led them away from the compound. However, the question was where did they go from here?

'I think we could go pretty much anywhere,' Gem told them as he surveyed the area ahead of them 'everywhere is just-'

'A wasteland' Gemma breathed, completing her brother's sentence. He nodded in agreement, but before they could move any further they were surrounded by strange robots. Gem and Gemma immediately took up fighting stances, while K just looked at the soldiers around them. They were clearly robots, evident from there metallic bodies and rigid movements. They held weapons like large screwdrivers in their hands, but they had handles like guns; K surmised they were blades that doubled up as blasters...either way they'd do some fatal damage if either her or the twins were on the end of one of their blows. She considered turning back but as she spun on the spot their were more of them behind...in fact they were everywhere; the trio were surrounded

A few of the soldiers started to close in, prompting the whole circle to gradually grow smaller and with it the distance between the trio and the robots grew smaller too. Gem and Gemma did their best to shield K, throwing their arms behind themselves to shield her sides as the former stood in front of her and the latter behind, both with their backs to her. K felt more protected, but was worrying about her friends; with their arms covering her, their chests were wide open. She was terrified into silence however, and slumped slightly to try and get as far away from the danger as possible. As she dropped to the ground she could feel the heat from the sandy ground, but the temperature seemed to be rising. Her thoughts drifted briefly back to the facility and the fire that had swept through the place she'd considered 'home' for majority of her life, but she was literally shook back to her senses as the ground beneath her started to reverberate. K looked around but could see nothing that would cause such disruption, and focused back on the ground which was now baking hot. Bright red lines started to burn through the sand, forming patterns it seemed. K traced the lines with her finger and was greeted with that heat, not so much a burning sensation but a welcoming warmth. She looked around to see that the lines formed a patterned circle beneath her, Gem and Gemma, and noticed that the edges of the circle fell just in front of the footsoldiers

What happened next shocked K to the core. From nowhere six people suddenly formed on the circumference of the circle, appearing in the gap between the trio and the robots. Where had they come from? She had always been a girl of science, working on computers and technological advances...everything to her was based on fact and scientific laws, and now a group of people had magically appeared seemingly from nowhere between the two factions. K was in awe, and noticed that the newcomers all wore coloured uniforms but were carrying a variety of different weapons

'Pink, Blue, White; defend the civilians,' spoke one of the strangers, clearly male 'red, yellow; take down the Grinders'

K watched as the three afore mentioned strangers, who she assumed were soldiers, drew blaster weapons of some description or another and tightened in a triangle around herself and the twins. In a flash they were firing on the robots, which the man in black had referred to as 'Grinders', while he and the other two drew close combat weapons and engaged the enemy head on. They were both carrying swords and slashed across the Grinders' chests, causing sparks to fly and the robots to fall. A similar effect was being achieved by the three soldiers who were protecting them, as their shots exploded on contact with the robots and sent them reeling. After a few minutes of fighting, the Grinders were no more

'Guys keep a lookout, there could be more' the man in black told the others, prompting them to quickly took up positions around the trio to cover all bases. K watched as the man approached Gem, before removing his helmet

'We need you to come with us,' he told Gem 'there's a place nearby where you can take refuge'

But Gem still didn't ease up 'how do we know you're not working for them?' He questioned, his eyes flicking for a second back to the burning building. Now the yellow warrior turned and, removing her helmet too, spoke to Gem

'Working for who?' She looked puzzled 'we're Power Rangers; we're here to help and try and stop this'

'Power...' Gem began

'Rangers?' Gemma finished

'Yeah, you never heard of us?' The yellow warrior asked

'We've sorta been isolated from the world' Gem informed her

'For a very long time' Gem agreed

'It doesn't matter, we'll bring you up to speed,' the warrior in black told them 'but we need you to come with us'

'We'll go'

Both twins turned to K; she'd been so quiet up until now it had been a surprise to hear her speak

'Are you sure about this K? We don't know who these guys are' Gemma replied hesitantly

'What's the alternative? If we stay here on our own we don't have any idea where we're going,' she continued, maintaining her quiet tone 'at least if we go with them then we have a chance. Plus they did just save us'

'She makes-'

'-a good point' the twins agreed

'Then it's settled,' the warrior in black said, bringing his wrist to his face 'deploy vehicles'


	2. Chapter 2

K was quiet as she sat in the back of the car; she was with three of the people who had rescued her and the twins while the other three were all on bikes. Gemma was with the blue soldier and Gem was with the woman in yellow who'd spoken to them earlier, while the red soldier was leading the way on his own bike. K looked at the three people she was sharing the car with; in the front passenger seat was the man in black who had also spoken to them earlier, while a blonde woman was driving. Next to her in the back was another man, his blonde hair slightly spiked at the front. He wore a white jacket and K guessed he was the white warrior from earlier, as the man in black wore dark clothing and so on. As she stared, the man in white noticed her looking and smiled but, in embarrassment, K turned away

'We're almost there' the man in black shouted, his voice rising above the wind that buffeted K's face as they drove. K looked over the side of the car but couldn't see a thing; to her it was just more sand and open skies. However she continued to watch, in the hope that something would appear in the distance which would give her a better idea of where they were going. But no such thing materialised; had she led the twins into a trap?

They drove a few metres more before she watched the red warrior at the front pull something out of his pocket. She couldn't identify it, but he seemed to be pressing buttons as if it were a phone or some other device. A light appeared on the tip of the object, before shooting forward and into the distance. K watched as the light, moving of its own accord and glowing red, continued to move forward before suddenly it came to a halt. The light began to get bigger, to the point that it shone brightly and K had to avert her gaze. The light gradually formed into an arch, almost like a doorway; it was almost like a second Sun, but soon the light vanished and in its place was just hollow. K didn't understand; how could there be an opening in thin air? In a wall perhaps, something solid, but surely not thin air...

K continued to watch however as the hollow grew bigger, to reveal a completely different scene behind it to the one before. It was as if a chunk had been removed from an invisible wall, so now around the hollow there was still the impression of more sand and sky, but in the hollow was something much different...

They sped through the hollow and it was almost as if they'd entered another world. It was clear to K that they were still in the desert, but the scene was far from the large expanse of sand and sky it had been before. There were buildings and roads like a normal city, and people were wondering about...it looked like the world before everything changed, K thought. Well, sort of; it was still in the desert and when you looked in certain parts which were unfinished you were thrown back into reality, but when you saw the roads that had been built and the shops that were up and running, it was just like old times. The scene was brought to life by the people who were walking about, shopping and socialising like nothing had changed...

K was brought back to her senses by the sound of car doors slamming as the three others who had been in the car got out of the vehicle and joined the soldiers who had dismounted the bikes. With the twins calling her over, K decided it'd be best to join the others; she swung the car door open and hopped out, before shutting it more cautiously than the soldiers had. She joined the group, walking as normally as possible to avoid attention, but luckily the twins squeezed her between them before the man in black started to speak

'This is Corinth City, a safe haven for people in this desperate time,' he told them 'Corinth has been set up as one of the places for people to take refuge and as the base of operations for the fightback against Venjix'

Hearing the name of the computer virus caused K to shudder a little; it had only been meant to lower the defences of Alphabet Soup long enough to help her and the twins escape, but she'd been stopped from installing a firewall against it. If only those soldiers who had stopped her would've listened to reason, things would still be normal. Guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders; everyone was suffering and it was her fault. She'd released Venjix into the world, and now the world was paying for her mistake. K felt tears welling in her eyes and, as she blinked them away, she looked up to see the man in black was still talking. She'd missed most of what he was saying, but she caught the tail end

'-we'll be taking you to the place you'll be staying while you're in Corinth. We'll do our best to provide you with the essentials, and it'll be seen what luxuries can be spared, but I'm sure you understand the desperate situation everyone here finds themselves in. Please follow me'

He headed the group of soldiers who'd rescued K and the twins, with the latter following close behind

'I kind of drifted off, did he say anything important?' K asked the twins

'Just a bit about Corinth' Gemma told her

'And then where we'd be staying' Gem concluded

'I like the way they assume we want to live together' K grumbled childishly, earning laughs from the twins

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_A/N Still keeping the rangers identities a secret; they'll be revealed in the next chapter but I'm sure some of you can guess a few of the rangers who are part of the team. K is still a quiet, reserved character, but I imagined she'd be slightly different perhaps than in the series? And so to me another event caused her to be so cold and in some ways hostile towards the RPM rangers. Anyway, not giving too much away! Please read and review :)  
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	3. Chapter 3

The trio stared wide eyed at the place they'd been brought to; it wasn't really a house at all. They had been shown around and the place was probably big enough to sleep ten people, while downstairs was kitted out with computers and technological advances they guessed weren't part of the common homes in Corinth

'This place...' Gemma began

'Is awesome!' Gem finished

'It looks like Alphabet Soup' K commented quietly, more to herself than anything, as she eyed the computers and tech

'We haven't been totally honest with you guys' the man in black told them 'as you can probably tell by the look of this place; it's not exactly a typical home'

'Yeah, we need your help' the woman in yellow told them

'We believe you're the ideal people to help us on a project that's vital to the protection of Corinth' the man in white informed them

'We want you to help us develop new powers to defend this place' the man in blue added

K looked wary; develop powers that furthered modern day technology? Not only did this look like Alphabet Soup, it also sounded like it and she wasn't prepared to go through that again. Releasing Venjix would be for nothing if she just ended up back in a facility; she was going to make it clear she wanted no part in this

'I won't do it'

The six who'd saved them, as well as the twins, all turned to her in shock and surprise

'Why K? What's wrong?' Gem asked

'We've just escaped Alphabet Soup! Do you really think I want to go back to exactly the same thing; different place, different people, same corrupt ideals. We don't even know who these people are, there's no way I'm working for them'

The woman in yellow looked thoughtful. 'We're not Alphabet Soup, or anything like them. They wanted to use you to benefit themselves, we want your help because we can't do this alone'

'It's true,' the man in blue added 'we're not skilled enough to do this alone. That's why we need you; you won't be expected to work 24:7 and never leave this place. If you need a break, you get a break...but ultimately, without you this plan can't go ahead and we need it to if we're to have any chance of keeping Corinth safe'

K thought for a moment. Could these people really be different? She'd known Alphabet Soup and its ideas all her life, she found it hard to think there could be a different motive behind developing technology like this

'What is it you need us for?' She asked, not wanting to agree until knowing what they were going to be a part of

'It's called Project Ranger,' the man in black replied 'we need to develop new powers in order to combat Venjix. Our powers are good, but not good enough; we need to develop technology which is advanced enough to deal with this new threat'

'It sounds like a good thing K' Gem said, turning to her and lowering his voice so only her and Gemma could hear him 'these guys want to save the world'

'And we could help them' Gemma encouraged

K nodded, and the twins turned back to the group. 'We're in,' K told them 'but we still don't know who you are'

'That's true, we should introduce ourselves' the man in black told the others

'I'm Adam Park, second Black Ranger and part of the original team of Power Rangers to protect Earth. We came from Angel Grove' he told them

'I'm Ethan James, the Blue Ranger for a team known as Dino Thunder. We protected Earth in 2004, from a place called Reefside' the man in blue told them

'I'm Sydney Drew, Syd for short,' the woman who wore a uniform with a pink trim 'I haven't protected the world yet, but I'm going to be the Pink Ranger for a team called Space Patrol Delta, known as S.P.D. for short, in the year 2025. Our base is in Newtech City'

The twins and K stared in awe; they were in the presence of someone from the future! To think time travel had been achieved just over a decade from now...

'I'm Nick Russell, the Red Ranger for the Mystic Force team,' the man in red informed them 'we protected Briarwood in 2006'

I'm Ronny, Ronny Robinson' the woman in yellow told them 'I was part of an initiative called Operation Overdrive, and was the Yellow Ranger who guarded San Angeles in 2007'

'And I'm Dominic Hargan, but you can call me Dom,' the man in white told them 'I'm the White Ranger for a team called Jungle Fury, but I was usually referred to as just the Rhino Ranger. We protected Ocean Bluff in 2008'

'That's the team,' Adam concluded 'we were put together to establish Corinth and were put in charge of Project Ranger, to develop ranger powers advanced enough to handle Venjix. There's more to our history, and we've compiled files on all ranger teams for you to look over to give you a better idea of what our lives as rangers involved'

'That was just a short introduction to ourselves, and you'll learn more as we go on,' Syd told them 'but we need to brief you on the mission, as long as you're in'

'We'll do it' k replied simply

'Very well,' Syd proceeded to sit down and pull out a laptop, placing it on the table. She flipped it open and typed furiously before leaning back in her chair so everyone else could see

'Corinth is a military protected stronghold, designed to protect the people inside and keep out the threat outside,' she told them as a video ran through on the screen 'to oversee this, it was decided that us six rangers would be assigned to Project Ranger; an initiative designed to develop newer, more sophisticated ranger powers to combat the threat posed by Venjix more effectively. However, we don't have the capabilities to do it alone'

'We're good, but we're not that good' Ronny laughed

'Speak for yourself' Ethan joked

'Ethan's the closest thing we have to a technical whiz in the group' Nick informed K and the twins

'Hey, I'm from the future,' Syd reminded him 'my technological knowledge is more than ten years better than yours'

'That's a point,' Gem commented 'why d'you need us if you've got people here from the future?'

'I'm a ranger sweetie, not a scientist' Syd remarked 'I know my way around the technology, but I'm not an expert. You guys have been working on government projects for most of your lives, you're better qualified'

'So you provide the experience and information on what makes a Power Ranger...' Gem stated

'And we make it, sounds fair' Gemma agreed

'Sort of,' Adam told them 'we'll play a part in the process too. Ronny here is an expert on the Zords'

'Zords?' K inquired

'Large robots for when the battles get big,' Ethan explained 'we've got a lot of work to do' he expanded when he saw the shocked looks on their faces

'We best get started then' K said firmly 'what's the arrangements?'

'We'll all be sleeping here,' Adam told her 'there's a military division here in Corinth we'll be having frequent contact with, but this project is wholly ranger orientated; basically we don't have to report to them on anything, but to keep them sweet it'll be good to inform them of our progress, even if it's just a quick chat'

'Sounds good, where do we start then?' K said, moving towards one of the computers. However she was stopped by Nick and Adam

'It's good that you're eager, but you guys must be hungry' Nick commented, almost asking. When K nodded slightly, Adam took it as a yes

'Well good, cos we're taking you for something to eat before we get started' he told them with a smile

'We're getting some food?!' Gem asked excitedly

'I've missed good food so much! What are we having?' Gemma asked with equal enthusiasm. Dom looked at the twins with a smile

'Pizza'


End file.
